The world is in desperate need for a new kind of leadership. The type of leadership we’ve seen the last several decades has produced record low levels of trust and engagement in the workforce, so clearly what we’ve been doing isn’t working. We need a leadership philosophy grounded in the knowledge and belief that the most successful leaders and organizations are those that place an emphasis on leading with trust.

Leadership and management are very different skills. Yet most of the time, we expect corporate executives to wow us with their detail-oriented approach to management and then suddenly metamorphose into visionary leaders the moment they’re promoted.

It doesn’t usually work out, says Annmarie Neal, the author of the forthcoming Leading from the Edge (ASTD Press, 2013).

“A leader is somebody who sees opportunity and puts change in motion. A manager is somebody who follows that leader and sees how to structure things to create value for the company,” she says. “I’ve found that the best leaders weren’t really good managers. Yes, they understood the discipline, but they weren’t the best accountant, or the best technical person, or the best brand manager. They can do it, but they have a way of [thinking about the issues] at another level.”

Leadership is no longer defined by years spent in the industry, seniority with the company or the number of gray hairs on our heads. Innovation and social strategies play an increasing role in who wins – and who gets left behind. Often by necessity, leadership is getting younger, stronger and more diverse

Effective leadership means that your vision, mission, and shared goals are clear for everyone involved. There is no room for inaccuracies, vagueness or ambiguity because these missteps only end up yielding lost time and poor results. This all boils down to being an effective communicator.

Creating a sense of belonging for people requires that leaders be engaged. It means investing time and energy to understand what’s going on with their people, their hopes and dreams, their fears and insecurities. Fostering belonging is about humanizing the workplace and creating a safe space where people can be vulnerable, real and authentic.

This is a great piece that describes the challenge that many organizations deal with on a daily basis – the difference between employees fitting in and truly belonging. The most productive employees, those who are engaged, feel a sense of belonging, not just fitting in.

Although leaders can play a role in developing a culture of engagement, it really starts with the hiring process. I am a major proponent of implementing a scientifically and validated assessment tool (e.g., ProfileXT) to help on-board the “right” people who will have a more natural fit within the organization.

It may seem relatively easy for people to “adapt” in order to execute in a job or career. But, eventually, this will catch up with employees and show up in their overall work performance. When an organization hires people who will culturally belong leaders have more time to concentrate on other high payoff activities.

I talk to people about leadership and becoming a leader. Some of them wish they were more effective at being a leader, some wish other people were more comfortable with their leadership, and some are not certain that they even want to be a leader. All of them have questions, and many of their questions grow out of a common concern.

Each of them, in one way or another, doubt that they can be a leader. They often ask me whether I believe that anyone, and everyone, can be a leader.

Well, are you? The short answer, especially if you’re a leader or even just someone in a leadership position, is yes.

Your people watch you. No one is born with an innate knowledge of what it takes to succeed so they must learn it. They learn some of it by listening, some by reading, but mostly they learn from watching. If you are their leader or the person who is above them in a leadership position then it’s you they are watching.

We see it all around us, yet inside of our organizations, we seem to ignore or forget the lessons.

Look to the web. The highest traffic site on earth is Google, run by an ever growing company that, in many ways, seems to have their act together, if you read most of the business press. Yet number six on the list of highest trafficked websites is Wikipedia – a site where the content is created not by paid staffers, but by engaged volunteers who, supported (very) loosely by a paid staff, want to contribute and do so anonymously.

When we think of leaders we want them to be extraordinary, smart, innovative, peak performers, charismatic, invincible. And often they are, however they are real people too; they hurt, they bleed, they cry, they laugh, they live, and they die.

If it were only so in the land of Dilbert. Unfortunately this is pervasive in many organizations - lack of trust, lack of sharing knowledge and no collaboration all go hand in hand and are together the tools of a failure to innovate.

Businesses with happy workers perform better in the long run than businesses with unhappy workers, wellbeing researcher Nic Marks told the Happiness and its Causes conference in Melbourne yesterday, citing various studies to prove his case.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.